Oceanic cooling recorded in shells spanning the Medieval Climate Anomaly in the subtropical eastern North Atlantic Ocean

Parker, Wesley G.; Yanes, Yurena; Hernández, Eduardo Mesa; Surge, Donna

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106635

Cited by 1 publication

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“…3). The published literature has shown that about 1 mm of the shell seems to correspond to 2–4 weeks of the organism's life, which shows that Phorcus tracks submonthly SST at the sampling resolution employed, in agreement with other studies (e.g., Parker et al, 2017, 2020). Published studies from other regions in the Mediterranean suggest that Phorcus grow relatively continuously year-round, but growth rates seem to decrease or stop at SSTs above 25°C (Mannino et al, 2008; Colonese et al, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Chronology, time averaging, and oxygen isotope composition of harvested marine mollusk assemblages from Ifri Oudadane, northeast Morocco

et al. 2021

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The archaeological site of Ifri Oudadane, NE Morocco, contains well-preserved marine mollusk concentrations throughout the Epipaleolithic (hunting-gathering) and Neolithic (food production) cultural phases, useful to test hypotheses driving such transition. However, the chronology and stratigraphy of harvested shells is complex due to the confluence of human activity and natural deposition processes. This work first quantifies the age and degree of time averaging of archaeological shells and then estimates sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) from the oxygen isotopes of selected specimens. Thirty-four radiocarbon-dated shells exhibited significant time averaging between 310 to 1170 yr that could not be explained by analytical error alone. This finding illustrates the need for individually dating shells in future paleoclimate investigations aiming for high temporal resolution. Nine isotopically analyzed shells dated to the Neolithic phase, between 5700 and 7600 cal yr BP, indicate that assuming constant oxygen isotopes of seawater, SSTs remained consistently warm, between 20°C and 22°C, that is, 2°C–4°C warmer than today. Results point to warmer conditions during the Neolithic, supporting the hypothesis that the rise of a food production mode of life in NE Morocco could have in part been triggered by warming conditions following the colder 8.2 event.

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